NEW JERSEY ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS OF ENGLISH 



i \\i '"; 



Report 



on 



The Conditions of the Teaching 

of English 

in the 

Secondary Schools 
of New Jersey 



President 
Charles H. Whitman, Rutgers College 

Vice-President 
Dewey T. Hawley, Dickinson High School, Jersey City 

Secretary-Treasurer 
Mabel A. Tuttle, Linden High School 

Executive Committee 

The Officers with Lindol E. French, J^ntic City High School 

Margaret Coult, Barringer H^gh School, Newark 

Mellinger E. Henry, DidBiison High School 



PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION 
1920 



NEW JERSEY ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS OF ENGLISH 



Report 



on 



The Conditions of the Teaching 

of English 

in the 

Secondary Schools 
of New Jersey 



President 
Charles H. Whitman, Rutgers College 

Vice-President 
Dewey T. Hawley, Dickinson High School, Jersey City • 

Secretary-Treasurer 
Mabel A. Tuttle, Linden High School 

Executive Committee 

The Officers with Lindol E. French, Atlantic City High School 

Margaret Coult, Barringer High School, Newark 

Mellinger E. Henry, Dickinson High School 



PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION 
1920 



PREFACE 

This investigation of the study of English in the secondarv^ schools of 
New Jersey was begun in the autumn of 1919. A questionnaire composed of 
the questions embodied in this report was sent to 490 teachers of English in 
the high and private secondary schools of the state. 150 teachers replied. 
169 schools received the questionnaire; 81 were represented in the replies; 
and of these the nimiber of private schools was proportionately small. Schools 
of all types and sizes responded. 

In 1912-13 this Association made a similar investigation through Mr. 
Paul A. Mertz, then of Trenton. His excellent report was printed in the 
Association's leaflet for January, 1914, but not widely circulated. Fourteen 
resolutions based upon it were published in the English Journal (3. 324, 5). 
The present report will occasionally cite the earlier to indicate progress or no 
progress in the last seven years. In 1 9 1 3 1 8 per cent of the teachers sent replies ; 
to this inquiry 30 per cent replied, representing 47 per cent of the schools. 
Presumably the most energetic teachers responded, so that our findings may 
be taken as a reliable indication of the facts, or at any rate erring on the 
side of favor. It must be remembered, however, that the figures reported 
were those of 1919. 

On the other hand, the poorer schools doubtless belong almost wholly 
to the half or more that did not reply to the questionnaire. Unquestionably 
many high schools of the state are below grade whose deficiencies are not 
represented in this report. 

The Committee: 

Lindol E. French, Atlantic City High School. 

F. L. V. Hancox, Lawrenceville School. 

Max J. Herzberg, Central Commercial and Training School, Newark. 

Sarah J. McNary, Trenton State Normal School. 

Junius W. Stevens, Barringer High School, Newark. 

Charles H. Whitman, Rutgers College. 

Charles G. Osgood, Princeton University, Chairman. 



SUMMARY 

This report falls into three sections: I, five general considerations; II, 
findings of interest to adminstrators, pviblic, and teachers; III, findings of 
particular interest to teachers. Teachers will naturally wish to read the 
entire report. The public and administrators are particularly urged to read 
questions 18 and 23 of Section II, pages 19-21; 23-25. 

Section I 
Critics of the present teaching of English should remember : 

1. That the study of English is a comparatively new discipline, and 
that English has not yet been taught long enough finally to settle either 
methods, plans, or aims. 

2. That too many things are now expected from the teacher of English 
for one teacher to accomplish. 

3. That the teaching of English, by its multiplicity of demands, requires 
more skill and personal effort from each teacher than the teaching of other 
subjects. 

4. That the public and our critics often demand from our pupils a higher 
standard of English than they observe in their own practice. 

5. That in present unfavorable conditions the results are as good as 
can be expected. 

Section II 

1. Number of Periods. The average number of periods a week is 22.74 
as against 25 in 1913. 20, however, is the desirable maximiim. II, 1 , page 10. 

2. Size of Classes. The average number of pupils in a period is 25. This 
is an improvement, though some of the city schools still allow classes of 
40 to 50, as large as in 1913. II, 2, page 10. 

3. Length of Periods. The average is 42 minutes. II, 3, page 11. 

4. Time spent in correcting Written Work. Many teachers still exceed 
the two hours' reading of written work a day stated by the Hopkins report 
as the maximum consistent with health. About half of the teachers think 
that they now have enough time for reading written work. Some who read 
5 or 6 hours a week think that it is sufficient, and that more written work is 
not desirable. Some who read excessively — 15 hours a week and upwards — 
believe that even so they do not read enough, and that the pupils should do 
more writing. But the answers agree in showing the importance of many 
economical devices for correction of written work, as a substitute for the sole 
use of correction with red ink. II, 4, page 11. 

5. Length of Working Day. Sh hours is the average working day of the 
teachers in school and out, according to the replies. Man}^ work 9, 10, and 
12 hours. 29 particular schools report an excessive number of hours. They 
include public and private schools, large and small. It needs no report to 
tell us that generally teachers of English are overworked. II, 5, page 12. 

6. Recreation. vStatistical answers to this question are impossible. It 
is clear, however, that many teachers cannot, or do not, get enough dis- 
tributed recreation. Very few find two hours a day. II, 6, page 12, 



7. Teaching of English requires Specialists. Half the schools report 
teachers who divide their time between English and other subjects. In 
small schools this may be inevitable. Nine large schools, which probably 
could avoid it, still practice it. In some unprogressive quarters the exploded 
theory apparently still holds with the administration that * ' anyone can teach 
English." II, 7, page 13. 

8. Personal Conference. The demand for personal conference with the 
pupil is practically unanimous. But in most cases the classes are too large 
to admit of it, teachers are overburdened, and many are forced to try to 
teach without it or give largely of their time outside of school hours. The 
private schools here have the advantage over public schools. At Atlantic 
City, however, one period a day is set apart to provide each teacher with 
time for personal conference. II, 8, page 13. 

9. Insufficient Time. The favorite device which two-thirds of the 
teachers are prevented from using by lack of time is personal conference. 
Others are unable for lack of time to do sufficient correcting in red ink, or on 
the blackboard, or reading aloud of the composition by teacher or pupil. 
13 teachers from both large and small schools report enough time for the 
use of all devices. On this point, however, only the teachers at Glen Ridge 
were agreed. II, 9, page 14. 

10. Special Treatment of Superior and Inferior Pupils. All are agreed 
that our teaching should provide for some distinction between the dull, the 
bright, and the average. Some would let the bright shift for themselves, 
and bestow special pains on the dull. Most, however, would make special 
provision for the specially bright as well as for those who are remediably 
backward. Various plans of such distinctions are described. II, 10, page 15. 

11. Cooperation between English and other Subjects. Only about one- 
third of the teachers report any serious plan of such cooperation. In many 
of these the teacher of English does most of the cooperating, though some 
schools report better arrangements where the teachers of other subjects do 
their part. Of those who practice cooperation the large majority approve 
the plan. II, 11, 12, 13, pages 16-17. 

12. Distinction between Work in Commercial, College Preparatory, and 
General Courses of Study. There is small uniformity of practice. Only 20 
schools are reported as making the distinctions mentioned, of which 15 are 
the larger ones. In most smaller public schools and in private schools such 
distinctions are either unnecessary or impracticable. II, 14, page 17. 

13. Grammar. 119 of the 148 would teach grammar in the secondary 
school, though many regard it as an evil made necessary by deficiencies of 
the grammar school. II, 15, page 18. 

14. History of English Literature. More than half of the schools give a 
course in the History of English Literature, though in several it is partial, 
brief, or for the best pupils only. II, 16, page 18. 

15. Value of Latin (and Greek) to the Study of English. 126 of the 148 
teachers who replied believe that the students of Latin (Greek is considered 
only in the private schools) are better writers and readers of English than 
those without it. 48 are emphatic. 24 qualify their answers. II, 17, 
page 18. 

16. Present Drawbacks and Urgent Reforms. Far more drawbacks 
than reforms were mentioned, though one obviously implies the other. The 
commonest drawbacks are overwork, overcrowding, inferiority of teachers and 
teaching, deficiencies in previous training of the pupil, excess and consequent 
superficiality of the work demanded, formalism and prescription, unfavorable 



social atmosphere. Underpay and lack of opportunity to distinguish pupils 
according to ability or proficiency were also mentioned. II, 18, page 19. 

17. Dramatics and Public Speaking. The replies show no consistent 
practice; but they make clear the need in several schools large enough to 
afford it, of having a sufficient number of well-equipped and well-trained 
teachers to take all and exclusive charge of dramatics and public speaking. 
II, 19, page 21. 

18. Provision for Senior Teachers. 24 schools out of about 50 repre- 
sented in the replies report that senior teachers have neither fewer periods nor 
more pay. In only 14 do the}^ have both. In 13 they have more pay, but not 
fewer periods. In 3 they have fewer periods, but not more pay. 11,21, page 2 1 . 

19. Means of Cooperation between Teachers, Administrators, and 
Public. In comparatively few schools has any satisfactory method been 
worked out. Teachers are timid or unenterprising in the matter. Among 
various methods described are cooperation with the Parent-Teacher Asso- 
ciation, joint meetings of committees of the teachers with the board, and a 
joint meeting of teachers with an efficiency committee of three from the board. 
II, 22, page 22. 

The reader's attention is especially called to the free expression of opinion 
on pages 23-25. 

Section III 

1. Relation of Composition to Literature. Theory and Practice seem 
strongly to favor some relation between the study of composition and the 
study of literature. 

At least half the teachers combine the teaching of literature in some 
fashion with the teaching of composition. Varieties of such combination are 
described. The teaching of literature very slightly exceeds the teaching of 
composition in amount, and in some schools composition predominates in 
the first two years. The tendency to separate the two subjects entirely is 
more apparent in the large schools, though some of the best teachers prefer 
to combine them. Ill, 1,2, page 25. 

2. Various Devices for Teaching Literature. Of the devices for the 
teaching of literature by far the favorite is free discussion. Others in order 
are reading aloud by the teacher, by the pupil, supplementary and voluntary 
reading. Least stress is laid upon special study of artistic elements. This 
and 3 brought forth interesting and helpful suggestions. Ill, 3, page 27. 

3. Devices for Teaching Composition. Personal conference leads all 
other devices for teaching composition. But each device is the most efficacious 
in the opinion of at least 11. Others in order are cooperative planning of 
the theme by the class, correction on the blackboard, by the class, reading 
aloud by teacher or pupil. Correction in red ink, word study, and grammar 
come lowest. Ill, 4, page 29. 

4. Oral Composition. It is agreed, especially in the larger schools, that 
oral composition should precede written, and has a reinforcing relation to it. 
Many forms of oral composition are described. Debate and dramatization 
are perhaps the most frequent. But the full importance of oral composition 
in itself is not yet generally appreciated. Ill, 5, page 31. 

5. New Devices. The "socialized recitation" is clearly the most popular 
device other than the usual ones mentioned under questions 2 and 3, though 
many who use it proceed with caution. Various forms of the project method — 
campaigns, dramatics, and publication of periodicals or even books — are 
described. Ill, 6, page 31. 



6. Measurements. The "measurements" are, as yet, not widely used. 
vSome teachers find them useless. A greater number who have tried them 
find that they stimulate the interest and effort of the pupil. Ill, 7, page 33. 

7. Vocal Training for Teachers. More than two-thirds of the teachers 
have had some training of the voice. The question was asked with a twofold 
consideration: (1) importance of the right use of the voice to general 
health; (2) importance of the voice in the interpretation of literature. Ill, 8, 
page 34. 

8. Means of Humanizing the Relations of Teacher and Pupil. Replies 
recommend either (A) activities and practices conducive to closer relations; 
or (B) favorable conditions in teaching; or (C) necessary qualifications in the 
teacher. The greatest stress is laid on (C), and the next on (A). Useful 
suggestions and comments are forthcoming. Ill, 9, page 34. 

9. Recreation. The largest number prefer mental diversion — the play, 
or the opera, or music, or reading. Many others resort to physical recreation 
in some form. Several practice some one of the arts as an avocation. Some 
prefer social diversion. Ill, 10, page 36. 

10. Desirability of a State Association of Teachers of English. 120 
wish a state association of teachers of English; 6 do not; and 7 are uncertain. 
Ill, 11, page 36. 

11. Proposed Aims of the Association. A great variety of aims was 
proposed about evenly divided between those who would improve the teaching 
of English by improving the conditions in which we teach, and those who 
would have the Association work to raise the quality of the teacher. No 
definite or detailed proposals were forthcoming. Ill, 12, page 36. 

12. Methods of Reform. Publicity is most frequently recommended, 
especially regarding unfavorable conditions or management in the schools. 
Experience has shown that the most favorable conditions prevail where the 
teachers, the administration, and the public are in sympathetic understanding 
with each other. Ill, 13, page 37. 



RECOMMENDATIONS 

OF THE 

NEW JERSEY ASSOCIATION 

OF 

TEACHERS OF ENGLISH 

1. No teacher of English should teach more than 20 periods a week. 

2. No teacher of English should teach more than 20 to 25 pupils in a 
period. 

3. No teacher of English should teach more than 80 pupils in all. 

4. Teachers of composition should not be expected to spend more than 
5 or 6 hours a week in the reading and correction of written work. 

5. No teacher of English should be expected to do more work, including 
extra and incidental tasks, than is consistent with health and efficiency; 
outside tasks should be more evenly distributed among all departments. 

6. Every teacher should have at least two hours of recreation each day. 

7. In general the teacher of English should teach only English. Teachers 
of other subjects, especially subjects outside of language and literature, 
should not be asked or expected to teach English, except as under 11. 

8. Five periods of English a week should be provided for all pupils in 
all four years in all courses of study. 

9. Provision should be made for necessary personal conference in 
school hours between the teacher and such pupils as will profit by it, and 
such conference should be reckoned as time spent in teaching. 

10. In actual teaching special provision should be made for pupils who 
need special attention, either by reason of unusual ability or remediable 
disability. 

11. Teachers of other subjects should be held responsible in part for 
the quality of EngUsh used by their pupils, and should cooperate with the 
teacher of English in plans for extending the training in English. 

12. The importance of Latin (or Greek) well taught as an aid to expres- 
sion in English should be recognized in planning courses of study and in 
advising pupils. 

13. In larger schools the staff of teachers of English should be organized. 
Senior teachers should have fewer periods and additional compensation. 

14. The best counsel and experience of teachers of EngUsh should be 
consulted in administration of all matters which properly concern them. 

15. Teachers, administrators, and parents should cooperate to effect 
complete and cordial understanding between all three. 

16. Other conditions are as important to efficiency and successful 
teaching of English as good pay. Such are physical and mental health, good 
spirits, comradeship, a fair portion of work, a just distribution of work among 
the teachers, accessibility of pupils, support and confidence of the pubhc, 
sympathy of administrators. 

17. Teachers of English should be selected with particular consideration 
of their personal fitness and their special training in the subject. 

18. Such a number of good teachers of English should be provided in 
each school as is necessary to insure the conditions herein set down. 

8 



THE REPORT 



SECTION I 
General Considerations 

English is comparatively a new subject in the curriculum. Its scope, 
its methods, its course of study, its aims, are as A^et undefined. Hence, on 
the one hand, a general uncertainty, divSagreement, dissatisfaction, discourage- 
ment, and waste of effort; on the other, a number of highly skilful, individual- 
istic teachers, self-made, and unable to impart their skill to others. Such 
inquiries as this may, therefore, help to discern the limitations of our subject, 
to discover to the public and to the administrators of our schools, as well as 
to the teachers, the real obstacles to success; to encourage and unite the 
teachers; to define our scope and aim; to improve our practice and enrich 
our art. 

The attention of the public and of administrators is, therefore, invited 
to four considerations: 

1. "English" involves many things. We are expected to teach the facts 
of grammar, to cultivate observation and develop appreciation, to stir 
imagination and aspiration, to establish habits of correctness in spelling, 
usage, pronunciation, speech, to train boys and girls in the technique of 
writing, with all that this implies in the way of orderly and clear thinking, of 
regulated feeling, of taste, of exercises in special forms such as letters, reports, 
etc. One of these is enough. Most of them lie also within the proper function 
of other subjects in the curriculum. But they are being relegated to English 
alone. On no other subject is the demand so great. And while it is properly 
the function of every other subject to assist in accomplishing most of these 
things, they are all expected of us. For this all-inclusive result, one-fifth, 
one-sixth, or even less of a pupil's time in school is set apart, and, no distinc- 
tion is allowed in schedule, or size of teaching staff, for the heavily dispro- 
portionate burden thus imposed on the teacher of English. 

2. Involving all these multifarious aims and processes, the teaching of 
English enlists all the energies of mind, character, and emotion of the teacher 
— his entire personality. His relation to the pupil must be peculiarly personal 
and sympathetic; he must be continually adapting himself to the individual, 
to the process in hand, to the subject. Teaching so personal, variable, and 
subtle as this is necessarily difficult above all other teaching. It calls for a 
great variety of personal qualifications united in one person, and combined 
with peculiar balance and proportion. 

Yet the teaching of English often looks easy, ^d being as it is so per- 
sonal a matter, it attracts many as being "delightful." But, like the writing 
of poetry, it is either easy or impossible — that is very (difficult. A good 
teacher, especially of English, is, like the poet, bom not made. 

The good teaching of English employs a vast variety of methods, devices, 
and expedients, and is ever in need of more. Where there is room for so 
much personal variation, no two teachers will find exactly the same devices 
and methods convenient. Says one, very jusll}^: "There is no cardinal or 
sovereign method in teaching English, and the teacher who tries to find one 



is sure to become biased and narrow." Another says: "Teaching is an 
obstacle race — get any^vhere with it — if you can." One difficulty, among 
the others is the choice of methods and devices. This choice must always 
be made subject to the greater considerations of personality and temperament, 
and of the supreme aim and conception of teaching. But a good choice is 
facilitated if the experience of all good teachers is pooled, and each has the 
benefit of others' invention and success. 

Thus the teaching of English is in all ways exacting and exhausting. 
It calls into play the teacher's every gift and power, with the obvious result 
that no other teaching makes such demand upon health, spirits, and courage. 
All these are necessary in high degree to its success. 

3. In spite of all that is done by the best teaching available in present 
conditions, the teaching of English is continually the target of criticism. 
Our youth can not, or will not — at any rate do not — use clear, correct English, 
think logically, or read good books by preference. The public remarks it, 
and bluntly tells us so. Whether more is to be expected of them than of 
many of their teachers, their employers, and their elders, is perhaps not 
relevant. It is relevant that in present conditions, disappointment of the 
public is inevitable; and involves the change of these conditions . 

At any rate the public demands higher standards than it observes. 
Nor is "good English" attainable when only four or five hours of a pupil's 
time are set apart, not for the pursuit of it, but for more or less unwelcome 
"treatment" in the subject, to every hundred hours of their susceptible lives 
spent amid illiterate influences at home and at large. 

4. The teacher's difficulty often lies in the necessit}^ of adjusting what 
is expected of him to what he can do; where conditions are sordid, narrow, 
and discouraging, his teaching strength is worn to the breaking point, and 
gives way to inertia, dullness, or despair. 

SECTION II 
Of Interest to Administrators, Public, and Teachers 

1 . How many periods of English do you teach each week ? 

The average number of periods a week is 22.74 as compared with 25 in 
1913. The highest is 35, against ?>?> to 40 in 1913. 35 periods are reported 
only from Burlington. 30 periods are taught at Boonton, Dover (2 teachers), 
Millville, Miss Beard's in Orange, Pemberton, Washington (2 teachers). 
41 teachers have 25 periods a week. 

It is gratifying to observe this marked improvement, but investigations 
show that 20 periods is the absolute maximum compatible with good instruc- 
tion in English, and 63 of the teachers, that is, nearly half, report more than 
that. 

2. How many pupil^v.i each period? 

The replies reveal an average of 25 pupils in a period. This probably 
shows some improvement. Carroll Robbins in Trenton reports an average 
of 40; though the average is lowered by groups as small as 10, or even 4, in 
small schools. But reform has made little or no progress in certain of the 
larger schools; 26 per cent of the teachers still have 30 or more; classes of 
40 are reported from Haddonfield, Leonardo, Morristown, Phillipsburg, 
Carroll Robbins in Trenton; of 41 from Central in Newark; of 43 from 
Central and West Hoboken; 45 from Point Pleasant. Dickinson High 

10 



School in Jersey City still reports a maximum of 50, as it did in 1913, and 
an average of 40 in a class. Lincoln in Jersey City has an average of 34. 
In such conditions no teacher, however excellent, can make progress. 

3. How long are the periods? 

The average period is 42 minutes long, and none is below 40 in the high 
schools. The Dearborn-Morgan school reports 30 and 35. In other schools 
the period runs to 45 minutes (in 26 schools), 50 minutes (in 7 schools), and 
55 (Princeton, Junior High in Trenton). More than 45 seems to us too much, 
and less may serve where the groups are small as in some small high schools 
or in private schools. 

4. How much time must you give, by the day or week, to the reading 
of composition? Is this amount sufficient to insure good teaching? Is it 
desirable that more written work be done by your students ? 

27 are reported as spending 10 hours or more a week. Most of these 
are in the larger schools of the larger towns. One teacher calls this "all I 
can stand." She is right. The Hopkins report of conditions at large in the 
country showed that two hours a day is the utmost that even the strongest 
teacher can spend in correction of composition without serious ultimate 
damage to eyesight and health. 10 hours a week is therefore more than the 
average teacher should read. 10 teachers are reported as reading more than 
10 hours; most of these reach 14 and 15. Such are reports from Freehold 
(one teacher) and Lawrenceville. One runs as high as 25 to 30; and one 
in Jersey City — clearly the superman — reports 33 hours of reading a week! 
The average amount of time thus spent, as shown by about 120 explicit 
statements, is 6j hours a week. Even this, we believe, is too much. Reading 
and correction which are profitable to the pupil, and not injurious to the 
teacher, cannot in general be done for more than one hour a day during the 
five school days of the week. It is gratifying, therefore, to obser^^e that at 
at least 67 teachers spend five hours or less a week in correcting papers, and 
of these more than 30 consider it sufficient for their purposes. 

Of the whole number who answered these questions 50 believe they now 
have time enough for correction of papers, 58 do not; 87 think their pupils 
should do more written work, 49 think that enough is now done. There is 
great discrepancy of opinion and practice. Such a discrepancy occurs even 
within one school where one teacher who teaches 8 periods of composition 
a week to classes numbering 25 to 30 spends 25 to 30 hours a week reading 
compositions and exercises, while another teacher in the same school who 
teaches 8 periods of composition a week to classes of 30 spends only 5 to 6 
hours a week reading. The first teacher thinks the pupils should do even more 
writing, and is in doubt whether her 25 to 30 hours' reading are enough to 
insure good teaching. They are surely too much to insure good reading! 
The second teacher says 5 to 6 hours are enough to insure good teaching and 
that the pupil does not need to write more than at present. 

These two replies represent two types ^' "'^rious and conscientious 
teachers. The first is perhaps superconscientious at>«ut the amount of work 
she imposes upon herself in getting correct work. The second emphasizes 
the importance of making the pupil do his own correcting and revising, and 
has found relief from the old drudgery and waste of time, nerves, and eye- 
sight by ingenious and effective devices for development of conscious self- 
criticism by the pupil. 

The answers to these questions show the importance of adopting and 
adapting more effective means of correcting bad practice in writing than the 

11 



sole use of red ink. At least this burden, with its enormous extravagance of 
time and strength and health, can surely be much lightened with an accom- 
panying increase of effect. [See Section III, 4.] 

5. How many hours a day on the average, in school and out, does your 
work require? 

137 gave definite answers to this question. iVbout 8^ hours a day is the 
average required for the work of these 137. While some have to spend less 
than this, many have to spend much more, and the answers indicate wide 
inequity in the distribution of the work. Three teachers — from Central 
High School in Newark, Moorestown High School, and Montclair Academy — 
report 12 hours daily! Others sometimes spend as much as 12 — at Lawrence- 
ville, and Union Hill. Daily hours run as high as 10 and 11 for at least one 
teacher at Asbury Park, Atlantic City, Bemardsville, Boonton, Bound 
Brook, Burlington, Camden, Chatham, East Orange (2 teachers), Freehold 
(2 teachers), Gloucester City, Hackensack, Lawrenceville, Long Branch, 
Manasquan, Morristown, East Side in Newark, Rutgers Preparatory, Pater- 
son (2 teachers), Pemberton, Ridgewood (2 teachers), Sussex. 9 others give 
as many as 9 hours a day to their work. Two answers though indefinite, are 
eloquent: "All the time I am not in school" ; "All m}^ time if I let it." 

These reports tempt one to picturesque comparisons with demands and 
privileges of labor in other fields. The four-hour, six-hour, or even eight- 
hour day seem to some teachers almost a Sabbath without end. Teachers, 
however, do piece-work. We suspect that in many cases great economy of 
time might be effected without loss of result — probably with a gain — if the 
teachers gave particular attention to various improvements in processes of 
teaching and various devices invented by members of the profession to this 
end. These may be learned from conferences, from the professional journals, 
from consultation of various text-books besides the one used in class. To 
watch one's own work from a detached point of view, to detect and stop leaks 
in one's time and energy, to abandon nerve-racking and ineffective methods 
(the two are often identical), to protect oneself by necessary rest and relaxa- 
tion, not to be too weakly good-natured in assuming futile chores extraneous 
to one's task, to take ready cognizance not of mere novelties, but of all new 
devices of the best teachers — such will save perhaps hours each day for 
some teachers who now find themselves breaking down under the strain. 

But unquestionably many teachers are working too hard. Considering 
the drain that teaching, particularly the teaching of English, makes of all 
one's energies, 8 hours a day, in our opinion, is the maximum that a teacher 
can economically give to his work. More than that is an extravagance to 
both pupils and teacher; the whole of one's work, not the mere extra, deterio- 
rates, grows perfunctory, ineffective, useless. Meanwhile health and spirits 
decline beyond the power of any vacation to restore. 

Any school, therefore, which overworks its teachers, either by not pro- 
viding enough of them, or by superimposing tasks that properly belong to 
others, is extravagant, not economical; and the returns in actual education 
will not be in just ratio to the expense. 

6. How much time do you get for recreation? 

Only 114 answered, and many of the answers are so indefinite that 
statistics hardly signify. The definite answers indicate that 43 per cent of 
the teachers report an average of an hour and fifty minutes a day for recre- 
ation. But of these some count in the week-ends, which should be free in 
any case. Three teachers report "no time" for recreation; 14 report "very 

12 



little"; 2 "not enough." Only three report "enough." Six have only 
"week-ends", four only Saturday and Sunday afternoon, 5 have only Satur- 
day afternoon or evening. Everyone with experience in the matter will 
agree that such conditions make for neither economy nor efficiency in the 
schools. 

No very definite inference, however, can be drawn from these replies, 
except that certain teachers can not, or do not, provide themselves with 
enough distributed recreation. In our opinion each shoiild have at least 
two hours a day of complete preoccupation with that pursuit which each 
finds best suited to keeping him well, enthusiastic, resourceful, cheerful; 
and that less than this, by intrusion of extra duties or excessive burden of 
pupils or schedule, is as unjust to school and pupils as it is to the teacher. 

7. How many periods a week do you teach other subjects than English? 
43 teachers from 40 schools report that they have to teach other subjects 

than English, from one to 21 periods a week. Though this is undesirable, it 
may sometimes be necessary in the smallest schools. In schools as large as 
those at Bloomfield, Dover, Freehold, Dickinson in Jersey City, East Side 
in Newark, Plainfield, Ridgewood, Trenton, and West Hoboken, this division 
could, and should, we believe, be avoided. The good teacher of English is a 
specialist and an expert who has developed a technique peculiar to his subject. 
It is sheer disregard of facts to suppose that "anyone can teach English." 

8. In teaching composition how much time is afforded for personal con- 
ference with the pupil ? 

The replies to this question show unexceptionally that : 

1. Opportunity for personal and individual conference with the pupil is 
essential to successful teaching of composition. 

2. There is no equivalent substitute for it. 

3. To insure it, classes must be of reasonable size, and the teacher not 
overburdened with work. 

4. When used with care and discrimination, and judged by its results, 
it proves to be an economy rather than an extravagance. 

In spite of general agreement of teachers in this matter 32 teachers report 
that they have no time at all for personal conference, and 63 that only out of 
school hours or during the recitation period can they find it. In one large 
high school a period actually set aside for the purpose has been abandoned, 
in spite of the teachers' opinion, because "our Board of Education decided 
that it was unnecessary, and assigned an additional section to each teacher." 
This, of course, is simply retrograde. Several overworked teachers deplore 
their lack of time for conference; one, "since I have to meet 150 pupils in 
class every day!" Another, who teaches 22 classes of 25 pupils a week, finds 
no time outside of class, though she is convinced that "laboratory English 
is the only promising method of solution." 

Replies indicate that in general the private schools fare better than the 
public in this respect. But the Atlantic City High School stands out a con- 
spicuous example by providing each teacher one 40-minute period daily for 
personal conference with individual pupils. Such liberal provision should be 
a model to all schools. In one school the classes were made smaller, at the 
expense of a formerly open period, to allow for more individual instruction. 
In another, pupils spend their study-period with their teacher of English, 
besides a seventh period set apart for personal conference. Another school 
has adopted the so-called "study-conference" plan, "which divides a period 
into two sections for recitation and preparation of the new assignment", and 

13 



thus gets time for conference. In another, two or three solid weeks of con- 
ference and blackboard work each year are devoted to the preparation of one 
long essay; though in these two cases the opportunity is inadequate. 

Some teachers try to make up in part for lack of individual teaching by 
management of their recitations. Says one: "Nearly an hour each week 
is spent in oral correction of compositions by the whole class, so that each 
individual is helped by the group recitation." This is not invariably prac- 
ticable for "if conference work is done during class", says one, "discipline 
suffers; if not, composition suffers." Others are opportunists, as all good 
teachers of English must be, and manage "to snatch our chance, before and 
after class, and in other odd moments, according to need, opportunity, and 
eagerness of the pupil. Sometimes I devote a whole period to it, sacrificing 
other teaching." 

Some 20 teachers use what time they get for conference only on the poor 
or backward pupils. Only 3 speak of making it a privilege for the brightest. 
Says one: "I take time for conferences with the very poor students and the 
very good. I do not find conferences with average students of any great 
profit." 

Various is the practice in personal w^ork. Some use it for review of 
errors in work already read and corrected by the teachers ; others for the cor- 
rection of errors ; others for the planning and execution of new work — molding 
the material while it is still plastic. Doubtless some employ all these methods. 
One w^ho supervises the writing of compositions remarks: "The corrections 
made at this time seem to be more carefully observed than the careful written 
corrections on the daily compositions prepared at home." A teacher in a 
private school reaches beneath the surface of mere procedvire when she says : 
"All our work is done with constant personal conference between teacher 
and pupil. It is my aim to know the temperament, tastes, and difficulties 
of each pupil individually, and I try to encourage each to express what is her 
own, not conventionally, or in accordance necessarily wdth set models, but in 
obedience to her interests and her enthusiasms." 

9. Which of the preferred devices are you kept from using by lack of 
time? 

The replies may be tabulated thus: Insufficient time for cooperative 
planning of composition by the class, 13; for correction in red ink, 13; for 
correction on blackboard, 15; for reading aloud of composition by the 
teacher, 12; for reading aloud of composition by the pupil, 8; for personal 
conference, 92. 

13 report that they have sufficient time for all needful purposes. They 
represent both the small and, in greater number, the large schools, though 
for almost every teacher in a particular large school who finds time enough, 
there is one, usually more, who do not. The one exception is the Glen Ridge 
High School, where the replies indicate contentment with the amount of time 
at present available. 

Strong preference for personal conference as a means of teaching com- 
position is already clear. That there is far too little time for the use of this 
preferred device is equally clear. It is therefore unreasonable in these condi- 
tions to expect any striking improvement in the use of written or spoken English, 
or in literary cidture. Citizens who are most disappointed, and are inclined 
to upbraid the teachers for their disappointment, should consider the real 
cause of it, and wonder at the actual attainment. One teacher complains 
of not so much the lack of time as brain fag; which is the same, or worse. 

14 



The heaviest handicap from lack of time is reported by individual teachers 
in high schools at East Orange, Englewood, Paterson, Union Hill, in Lawrence- 
ville, and in the Dickinson High School, Jersey City. 

10. Describe any experiments, by instruction of individuals or groups, 
in the interests of the exceptionally backward, or the exceptionally bright 
pupils, stating whether you consider these worth while. 

The replies raise the questions whether we may in teaching profitably 
differentiate the bright and the dull from the average, or only the dull, or 
only the bright. 

All seem agreed that distinction must be made, and even some of the 
smaller schools divide the classes, especially in the first year, according to 
ability. "The exceptionally bright pupil can shift for himself, but I should 
like time to devote to the backward individual." In one case bright pupils 
are excused, to gain time for the dull. This somewhat time-worn opinion, 
however, is no longer general ; the pupil of unusual ability is already receiving 
some of the special attention which he deserves. The case is mildly put by 
one who says: "The bright pupil has a right to as much of the teacher's 
time as the dull." 

In segregating the dull for special attention, one teacher warns us to 
distinguish between the really dull and those who appear dull, but only 
need "to be approached in some particular way." In either case they 
demand individual attention and encouragement by personal conference 
or in small divisions. One speaks of eighth-grade and first-year pupils thus 
segregated, w^hom she taught to correct their own themes. Another set up a 
"spelling hospital", but "this device was used only at intervals." Another 
has "backward pupils work much at the blackboard." Another reports: 
"In an exceptionally stupid class I got the first interest in composition and 
the first progress by actually dictating the number of sentences in a paragraph 
and their grammatical construction. It made the problem definite enough 
to hold their attention." But some doubt the utility of spending special 
pains on the really dull. " I have taught", writes one from a large high 
school, "for two terms a special composition class of ten or twelve, with 
personal conference almost daily in the class period. More than half of this 
time was wasted on pupils who are below average mentally, do not stay in 
school, and soon lose in an illiterate environment the benefit of temporarv^ 
help." And she touches what is often the root of the matter when she adds: 
"Usually it is moral weakness, not English, that needs treatment." 

"I have never had any pupils so bright that I could not keep them 
fully occupied by the regular assignment", observes an ingenious teacher. 
That depends, others would say, on how you manage the regular assignment. 
At any rate, various are the methods devised in the interests of brighter pupils. 
The comm.onest is the assignment of extra work, which, in the form of 
independent personal investigation well adapted, seems to be regarded as a 
welcome privilege. Extra work for the bright may even take the project 
form, as reported in at least one school, and extended to various local or 
national campaigns and movements. See III, 6, page 32. 

Brighter pupils may help the others: "Sometimes I set the stronger to 
help the weaker. I have never found a pupil who objected, but on the con- 
trary I have been amazed at the earnestness of the stronger, and the faithful- 
ness of the weaker." Sometimes in qualif^ang for this duty the bright pupil 
gets extra help in the form of special coaching by the teacher. One teacher 
tells of an exceptionall}^ bright senior, whose special knowledge of aviation he 

15 



used to help in group work in the Freshman class. The class had elected to 
study aviation, and, largely by this lad's help, kept up its study, prepared 
diagrams and speeches, presented them to other classes, and finally chose 
to write a book." Evidently this method does not alwa3^s succeed. "The 
backward pupils feel patronized and the bright ones burdened." In any 
case it wovild require great tact and most favorable esprit de corps. 

Some schools reward brighter pupils with responsibility on committees, 
with charge of the library, or oversight of research, or of inter class literary 
activities. Such pupils sometimes receive charge in committee of a whole 
recitation and conduct it according to a program. In one case the class is a 
literary^ club which devises the program of its recitations and chooses (doubt- 
less with advice) the works for study. Eligibility by scholarship to member- 
ship in such a group is a strong incentive to many. One teacher made of the 
better pupils critic-groups of three for each class. She finds, however, that 
the plan requires tactful guidance. 

The plan of excusing brighter pupils from a certain amount of work is 
not generally approved. A teacher who tried it even calls it a vicious 
scheme. One school, however, meditated a plan of excusing brightest pupils 
one period a week, and devoting this time to the slower ones. Some will 
question whether this is fair to the brighter pupils, or good economy in the 
long run. 

11. In teaching literature or composition is there cooperation between 
the work in English and the work in other subjects? 

48 teachers report such cooperation; 36 report "some" or "little"; 
3 1 report none ; 33 do not answer. 

12. Please describe briefly the plan of this cooperation. 
Replies show cooperation of two distinct kinds : 

1 . The teacher of English accepts and oversees written work done in other 
subjects, or uses material which they furnish. In short he does all, or most, 
of the cooperating. Such plans are described by 14 teachers. The favorite 
and natiiral alliance is with History and Civics, through study of plots and 
settings, historical background, "biographies and observance of historical 
days", long themes on public questions, debate, and public speaking. 
"While the senior class," reports one, "is studying Washington's Farewell 
Address and Webster's Bunker Hill Oration, it is studying American History." 

Only one teacher definitely mentions translation in prose or verse as a 
discipline in composition. Yet many a famous writer has trained himself 
by it. 

The alliance is sometimes effected through book-lists and outside reading. 
"Teachers of other subjects are asked to furnish names of books to be placed 
on outside reading lists." The reading lists for History, English, and other 
subjects "are prepared by a group of teachers." "Books relating to History, 
Science, etc., are reported on orally on Book Day." "I accept reading in 
connection with other work in my optional reading reports." 

In one of the larger schools most departments from History to Domestic 
Science take part in the staging of the school plays, in preparation of setting, 
costumes, accounts, etc. 

For oral composition, as well as written, the matter used in History, 
Economics, and Current Events is employed. Science is variously used in 
exposition and description, and provides exercise in writing up experiments 
and accounts of scientific processes, or "of material gained in zoology, and 
botany, such as the description of insects and plants." 

16 



"Allusions are constantly made in the English room to other subjects — 
to Mathematics for argument, Physics for exposition, Latin for spelling." 
In another case much of the exposition is based on the work in "Gardening, 
Drawing, Manual Training, and Domestic Science." The commercial teacher 
cooperates with the English teacher in the study of letter-wrriting. 

Research work done in science, reported in essays, is accepted in English 
work. A senior American History pupil gives historical background in a 
report before a Junior class in American Literature. 12-year-old boys present 
simplified problems of democracy to a Freshman Commercial Class in Civics. 

2. Teachers of other subjects also cooperate in the general warfare for 
"good English." Thus lists of troublesome words in other subjects are 
made for special study in English. Teachers of all subjects confer and freely 
discuss deficiencies or excellencies in English of particular pupils. The best 
method is followed where * ' all teachers are more or less teachers of English ' ' ; 
or where "good English must be used in all departments, in notebooks, etc. " ; 
or where " some of the teachers of other subjects are very willing to cooperate 
by using the same marks of criticism in correcting written work, and by 
crediting work prepared for English — such as translation — in their particular 
subjects"; or where "other teachers require correct English, especially in 
geometry and the 'languages.'" 

Pressure for "good English" exerted by an overworked teacher four or 
five hours a week against the overwhelming odds of laxity in other classes, 
in street, shop, home, and society, can accomplish little if anything. At least 
let the pressure extend itself throughout the mental discipline of school i^ we 
sincerely wish for "better EnglivSh" and discipline of thought. 

13. Do you consider the results of cooperation worth the trouble? 

76 teachers say "yes"; 8 say "no." The sixty odd who do not answer 
this question leave us to infer that their schools either do not practice cooper- 
ation between English and other subjects, or that it is inadequate. The 8 
who consider the results not worth the trouble show that the attempts at 
cooperation in their schools are clearly inadequate, and in practically every 
one the burden is thrown upon the already over-burdened teacher of English. 
Where the teacher of English is expected to read and correct the work written 
by 100 pupils and more for other teachers, as well as for himself, we have 
cooperation in name only. It will never be cooperation in fact until standards 
of good English prevail among teachers of other subjects and are upheld by 
them as they teach. 

14. Does your scheme of courses in English distinguish between candi- 
dates for higher education, and pupils whose education ends with school; 
between pupils in the general course, and those in the commercial and technical 
courses ? 

Out of 80 schools represented in the replies, only 62 answered this ques- 
tion. The replies show no uniformity of practice. 20 schools make distinc- 
tions of the kind designated in the question. Of the 20, 15 are among the 
larger schools. This is to be expected; equally reasonable is it that the 
smaller school and the private schools find it either unnecessary or imprac- 
ticable to make these distinctions. Larger schools which as yet make no 
distinction of this sort are Dickinson in Jersey City, Dover, Freehold, Pater- 
son, Perth Amboy, Ridgewood, West Hoboken. 

The distinctions vary widel}^ in degree. Some schools distinguish only 
by giving extra work in "commercial" or "business" English. Others divide 

17 



the classes at the beginning of the third or the fourth year, and provide more 
narrowly commercial work for those who require it. 

In one of the smaller high schools, mthout special provision, the teacher 
writes: "I often do private work with those who are not candidates for 
higher education. There is no pay for such work; I do it voluntarily." 
Another says: "Business English is given in Freshman year, a very bad 
plan. I give the class seven-eighths fundamentals of literature and com- 
position and one-eighth technical business matters (form letters, etc.) to 
satisfy the demands of the course." 

15. Do you believe in teaching grammar in the secondary school? 

The moot question of grammar is here apparently settled. The 
replies nvimber 147. 135 approve, of which 12 are emphatic, and several 
would make the study informal and ancillary to composition. Many 
of those who favor the study of grammar in the secondary school 
clearly regard it as an evil made necessary by failure to teach the subject 
effectively in the grades. One writes : * ' The most definite work in our English 
course can be the work in grammar. ... If attention were given to the 
thought expressed in illustrative sentences, the constructive value of such 
illustrations would be realized. I have no patience with either books or 
teachers that employ unintelligent sentences simply for examples." 12 are 
opposed to teaching grammar at all in the secondary school. 

16. Do you give a course in the history of English Literature? 

66 schools replied. Of these 51 give a course in the History of English 
Literature, though, in several cases the course is partial, brief, or provided 
only for the best pupils. 

17. In your opinion are the pupils who study Latin and Greek better 
writers and more intelligent readers, or more exact and effective in their use 
of English words, than the others? 

This question brought one of the largest and most emphatic polls. 
141 of the 150 replied. Of these 127 say "yes", of whom 42 stress their 
replies. 24, however, qualify their answer by remarking that it is not the 
Latin (Greek is now studied only in the private school) , but the better quality 
of student who elects Latin, or the better home from which he comes, that 
explains the difference. 14 say "no", none with emphasis, and some falter- 
ingly. One observes the advantages which the query mentions only in those 
who study Latin voluntarily. 

Very few replies distinguish between these advantages: some mention 
greater intelligence in reading, and others more skill in expression. 

We cite a few comments: "I feel that Latin is more valuable than other 
subjects except English in producing good writers and speakers. " " Decidedly 
so; I wish the study of Latin were compulsory at ten years of age." "Latin 
pupils have a much better knowledge of grammatical constructions; hence 
they are able to write far better sentences; their vocabulary is larger, and 
they are decidedly more intelligent readers." "Decidedly, especially in 
ability to grasp meaning from the printed page." "I have recently tried 
with much interest the experiment suggested by Frederick Ireland's article 
High Schools and the Classics in the July Atlantic (124, 47-53; see 
School and Society, 10, 54-5). Classical students showed far superior vocabu- 
laries." Those with the best vocabulary, the best knowledge of meanings of 
words, have studied Latin, Spanish, German, or French — one language or 
several." 

18 



18. What seems to you the most serious drawback, and the reform most 
urgent, in the present teaching of English in our schools ? 

This question drew many interesting answers. A far greater number 
dwelt upon the drawbacks than upon the reforms, though necessary reforms 
are clearly enough indicated in all cases. 

Readers of the report should remind themselves that they here have 
the criticism and suggestion of those who by professional experience are, 
more than others, qualified to speak with authority. No one, so much as 
they, has had the success, the discouragement, and the wealth of experiment, 
that qualify them to say what is really the matter. 

Certain hindrances to good teaching are very definitely and repeatedly 
pointed out. These are overwork, overcrowding, inferiority of teachers and 
teaching, deficiencies in previous training of pupils, excess and superficiality 
of work in English as planned, formalism and prescription, unfavorable condi- 
tions in society at large. 

Others less frequently mentioned are underpay, failure to classify pupils 
according to abilities or to previous experience, and to differentiate their train- 
ing, especially the training of the foreign-bom. 

Overwork and Overcrowding. According to the replies, this is the worst 
of all our evils. It is of two sorts — either overburden in the work itself, or 
of extraneous duties always gravitating towards the teacher of English; 

Not only is "everything that relates to English put off on the English 
teacher," but "too many 'asides' are expected of the English department — 
plays, current events, 'stunts', vocational work, elocution, journalism, etc." 
One teacher testifies that "the Enghsh teacher has all extra things thrust 
upon her — dramatics, programs for special days, distribution of information, 
taking charge of tickets." Another, that every innovation or experiment is 
tried on English. Testimony in support of these statements abounds. The 
conclusion is clear enough — either distribute these duties, if they are really 
duties, fairly and equally among the whole staff of teachers, or provide a 
person or persons whose special function it is to undertake them. 

But many teachers are, even if so relieved, overb-urdened with their 
teaching. Their periods are too many, or their classes too large. "I find 
140 pupils more than I can properly care for." The complaint is general; 
but is heard more often from the larger and richer high schools, where some 
teachers meet 170 to 200 pupils, than from those in the country. 

The complaint of overwork and excessive number of pupils usually goes 
with the expressed desire, not for an easier time of it, but for opportunity 
to teach better. "With our crowded classes, we can teach only in a formal 
manner." "Little attention can be given to personal needs when the teacher 
is forced all day to teach classes averaging forty." Insufficient time is allowed 
for attention to many details on which success largely depends, "the careful 
planning of oral and written composition, careful correction, discussion of 
corrections privately with the pupil." 

This actual yearning for the opportunity to do personal work ^dth the 
individual pupil, a condition indispensable to the best teaching of English, 
is expressed on every hand. The need of more teachers, of fewer pupils to the 
teacher, of release from excessive work, is only too apparent. Such relief will 
lead immediately to personal work and highly increased advantage to the 
pupil and the school's clientele, and is without doubt the reform most urgent 
in the teaching of English at present. "Employ two teachers instead of one, 
to do two teachers' work." 

Many complain of the excess of ground they are expected to cover, and 

19 



of the incumbrance of elaborate and useless prescribed processes. They 
utter a plea for simplification of the work. Here are comments which speak 
for themselves : "We make the effort to do too much — more than is humanly 
possible. Can't we simplify our aims and cast off some of the long-time 
routine?" "Too much cramming. The old practice of thoroughness while 
it resulted, perhaps, in over emphasis of minuti^, erred on the better side." 
"The teacher's conditions should be reformed that more intensive work may 
be done with the more important things." "Far too much work in literature 
is attempted." "Too mnch fancy work ... to the neglect of rudiments." 
"We are handicapped by the lack of thoroughness and by superficiality." 
"Teachers require too much work, that is, quantity rather than quality. 
Not enough straight, clear thinking is done by the pupil." 

For these defects some blame the school management ; some, the tendency 
to formal prescription superimposed upon the teacher by boards and super- 
intendents, with the consequent loss of liberty to the individual teacher to 
teach in his own best way; and some, the faults of society at large. The 
teaching of English, we have already observed, is various and complex, and 
still far short of its highest development. It must grow simpler and more 
clearly defined, both in its objects and its processes. All who have any 
influence in guiding it, whether by plans, outlines, or supervision, should 
recognize this very important need, and look to correcting it. 

But in standardizing and simplifying there is always serious danger of 
formalism and of curbing a teacher's effectiveness by interfering with his 
natural and best way of teaching. The teaching of English is in so large 
part an individual matter, and originality and instinct play so large a part 
in the best of it, that plans and efforts for standardization must ever be 
guided by a sense of the risk they run of impairing, not improving, a good 
teacher's work. One teacher in a large school speaks for many others in 
saying, "We have no voice in shaping the prescribed course." Another, 
from a private school, condemns "the substitution of pedagogical nostrums 
for personal initiative and intelligence"; and others, variously, "rigidity of 
curricula", "the impossibility for teachers of choosing their own texts and 
methods of procedure." 

Another troublesome drawback is the immaturity and unfitness of many 
pupils admitted to the secondary work. "Stop pushing pupils through the 
grades", protests one teacher. "If a pupil is pushed through the grades too 
young, his ability to reason does not keep pace with his ability to memorize. 
Probably he will never recover from this bad start. His immaturity shows 
nowhere so glaringly as in English classes." "Many pupils enter our high 
schools without ever having read one book." Another protests that "the 
illiterate products of the eighth grade are wearing her down into a mere 
automatic corrector of sloppy themes." According to another, "the theory 
that any pupil, trained or not, of high school age should be admitted wastes 
a large part of the energy of the high school, and lowers the quality of work." 
Another protests against large classes and laxity in promotions from first to 
ninth years. "I believe no pupil should be allowed to enter high school until 
he can write a simple English sentence. Many pupils do not know bare 
fundamentals." Another recommends "uniform state examinations" as a 
partial remedy. Here again the difficulty confronts us of handling pupils in 
the bulk. It cannot be done with any effect or result. The first step in any 
solution of this, as of most other problems, is to provide such staff and such a 
scheme of work as will enable the teacher to do individual teaching, and 
differentiate among pupils according to their needs and aptitudes. 

20 



Many teachers do not hesitate to find the chief drawback in the teachers 
themselves, or in the superintendence of the teaching of EngHsh. According 
to one, all difficulties are summed up in "inefficient teaching"; according to 
another, in "ignorance of the educator." 

We face here the basic difficulty of all — the personal one. Many 
teachers of English are ill equipped and ill trained for this work. Much 
supervision is narrow, formal, unenlightened. Inability or unwillingness to 
recognize the dignity and difficulty of teaching English stubbornly resists all 
protest and the warning of all experience. 

Here are a few typical opinions from a variety of schools : 

"The positions for teaching English should be filled by teachers who 
have specialized and prepared for such work — not by persons transferred from 
other departments, to whom teaching is a side-issue, and who have not the 
background for it." "Principals still think that anyone can teach English." 
Hence untrained teachers with "narrow outlook." "The general attitude 
towards English is that it is a subject which can be sacrificed for others." 
One indicts "the poor preparation ... of teachers, particularly in Fresh- 
man English. I have noticed that teachers often are given Freshman English 
when they are themselves weak in English. Hence, a poor start." 

The need of more and better teachers is undeniable. But it only presents 
the more difficult question, "How and where can we get them?" 

19. Is the charge of dramatics and oral work assigned all to one teacher? 
The replies to this question statistically yield no significant result. 

63 schools answer. In 30 the work in dramatics and oral training is that of 
one teacher. In 32 it is that of more than one. Where the school employs 
from one to three teachers of English, almost certainly one will have charge 
of oral work; in the largest schools one teacher is insufficient for all the 
necessary work. Furthermore much oral composition is taught in connection 
with other work in English, and thus cannot be assigned to one teacher. 

The question, however, gives opportunity to remark that, where by really 
serious effort it can in any way be made practicable, a sufficient number of 
special well-trained and well-equipped teachers be provided to take charge 
of dramatics and all public speaking. This serves the double purpose of 
providing the far better services of a specialist, and of protecting the other 
teachers from the intrusion of extra duties that exhaust them and undo the 
effect of all their work. 

20. Has your school increased the salaries of teachers for this year? On 
what scale? 

The question of salaries is so unsettled and variable in different schools 
that the committee is unable to present any summary of replies that will be 
of present value. Increase of salaries, all agree, is indispensable to better 
teaching, or even to continuance of present qualit3^ But other conditions 
are equally indispensable, and it is our present purpose to define these, while 
we confidently expect that communities everywhere will see the crying neces- 
sity to their own interests of immediate and generous increases. 

2 1 . Do senior teachers have fewer periods than the others ? More pay ? 
Schools with only one teacher would, of course, not reply. Only 58 of 

the 80 schools replied to question 41; and 47 to question 42. The returns 
are therefore not highly significant, unless it signifies that 24 schools at least 
allow their senior teachers neither fewer periods nor more pay. 

In 13 schools the senior teachers or teacher have more pay than the 

21 



others, but no fewer periods. In three schools the senior teachers, or teacher, 
have fewer periods, not more pay. In 13 the senior teachers, or teacher, 
have both fewer periods and more pay. These schools are Camden, Closter, 
Freehold, Glen Ridge (though answers did not here agree), Lawrenceville, 
Netcong, Barringer in Newark, East Side in Newark, Central High in Newark, 
Newton, Princeton, Carlton Academy in Summit, Trenton. This, we believe, 
is as it should be both for the morale of the school and the individual teacher. 
It will be observed that this list contains private as well as public schools, 
and both large and small, high schools. 

22. Please describe any practical method in the high schools which has 
succeeded in getting teachers' demands before the public and the boards. 

Answers to this question were interesting as reflecting a wide difference 
between school and school in the harmony and cooperation between teachers, 
school administration, and public. 

Said one: " We have no method. Neither do we dare say a word. One 
of our teachers has been reprimanded for talking with the board about condi- 
tions." Another: "Like most bodies of teachers, we have not succeeded in 
piercing the first-line trench , held by principal and superintendent . ' ' Another : 
"We have not succeeded very well on account of petty politics." 

In many cases the teachers have been more successful, though it has 
often been by movements of aggression. Such attitude indicates that certain 
conditions are wrong, and it behooves each school and community concerned 
to get to the bottom of them and correct them. Often the antagonism stands 
between the teachers and the board and school administration, and has led 
to a direct appeal to the constituency at large. 

Thus some teachers have been forced to a publicity campaign which, in 
one case at least, was conducted by a publicity committee. One recommends 
publicity as a means of overcoming public ignorance and prejudice and would 
combine with it "willingness to look elsewhere for a post, and letting employers 
know it." Some advise tactful private talk with individual citizens, on every 
favorable occasion, advising them of conditions. In one case " the teachers, 
aided by prominent citizens, called a meeting, and presented their claims. 
It worked." 

Petitions are circulated, sometimes petitions to the Board signed by 
teachers, or by taxpayers. One campaign is described thus: "Our teaching 
force went in a body to the Board of Education and earnestly solicited a 
substantial increase of salary. Not being successful, they went the next week 
to the City Hall to attend a meeting of the Board of Estimate. They gained 
newspaper publicity and an increase of $150. They had asked for $300." 

Closer cooperation than this and more cordial understanding between 
teachers, administration, and public, have been attained in some communities, 
and recommend themselves to all schools that lack them. 

At Ridgewood ' ' the Parent-Teacher Associations have done a great deal 
to interest the public and the board." At Asbury Park, Plainfield, Freehold, 
Westwood, and another school employing four teachers of English (name 
not given), joint meetings with the board are, or were, held. At Asbury 
Park "we have a business committee in our teachers' association, which 
presents resolutions adopted by the association. We make a study of the 
conditions in our school and other schools before we make any resolution 
to be sent to the board. We try to be informed on the subject of salaries, 
etc. We are now collecting clippings of what other schools do, and are 
planning to publish them," At Westwood, "one teachers' meeting each 

22 



month is held with an efficiency committee of three men, members of the 
Board of Education." This or a similar arrangement is urged upon all schools 
as a means of fair understanding. Until they enter into such understanding, 
the effectiveness of teaching must be much impaired by cross purposes, 
antagonism, and low morale. 

- 23. Please add freely, on the unoccupied space of this sheet, any opinion 
on the whole subject for which these questions have not given you scope. 

We have left to the last certain passages from the replies which emphasize 
and summarize the case of the teachers of English more eloquently than any 
paraphrase of our own can do. They are recommended, without comment, 
to the reader's careful consideration. 

"I have felt for many years that our teachers are being taught how to 
teach without having anything to teach. Of course low salaries will buy 
nothing but cheap teachers, but unfortunately some of the larger salaries go 
to people who have not fed their minds for years, or who have studied man}^ 
methods of how to teach and forgotten that real education is not a matter of 
embossing a young mind with a set pattern of facts, but rather of leading it 
willingly into large pastures. If we are to have real education in English w^e 
must have inspirational teachers. We all admit that the best writers of 
English style are such because they are filled with the spirit of their pre- 
decessors. . . . English is not a commonplace thing, but a commonplace 
personality can make it seem so. Therefore English teachers should be 
specialists, not in pedagogical methods, but in English. Moreover, they 
should not consider that they are fit to teach unless they are willing to add 
constantly to their stock in trade." 

"Is there no way of insisting that the teaching of English calls for the 
same special preparation any other department requires?" 

"The teachers of others languages in high schools find pupils lamentably 
deficient in any technical knowledge of their mother tongue. Time has 
likely been wasted in having pupils read classics so far above them that they 
get into the habit of smattering. In the advanced classes in high school we 
then have the Herculean task of overcoming the habits of a long period of 
bad schooling. We ought to organize for definite requirements in technique 
from year to year." 

"The head of a department of English — especially of a department of 
three or more teachers — should teach no more than three periods a day and 
should have no study room. This would give him time for supervision, 
correlation, and personal conference with both teachers and pupils. . . . 
Every high school should have a trained teacher in public speaking. Teachers 
of composition and literature have enough to do without training speakers 
for public exercises." 

" I do not think enough attention is given to literature in the last two years 
of grammar school. We have here a Lower School, in which I have convinced 
myself that good work can be done in grammar, without preventing the 
reading of three or four good books each of those last two years. A large 
number of pupils never go beyond the grammar grades ; are you not allowing 
them to go away from the only cultural influence the}- may ever have in 
their lives without even knowing what the term ' literature ' means ' 

"I have been rather successful in teaching the History of English Litera- 
ture formally. ... I have worked out a four-year course of reading which 
is correlated, and leads to the last year's work as sanely as possible. I wish 
pressure could be brought on the English Departments of our colleges to ask 

23 



definite questions on the History of English Literature on the entrance 
papers ; this would encourage the course in the History of English Literature 
in all High Schools and Academies." 

' ' The problem confronting us here is to make those in authority see that 
work in English is more difficult and requires more of the teacher's time and 
energ}^ than the work of almost any other department, hence that they need 
to teach fewer hours and that they should have smaller classes. During 
the entire winter I personally devote every afternoon after school until six 
o'clock and almost every evening to assisting in debates, coaching dramatics, 
and working with literary societies. This is where I feel that my influence 
is most greatly felt. But I am expected to do a full day's work the following 
day with the same preparation that any other teacher in the force has 
made. . . . The addition to the department of two teachers would prac- 
tically solve our problem, but the request is rejected after repeated appeals." 

"Our problems in discipline are tremendous, we often fight for the chance 
to teach at all, in the large classes interspersed with so many of these laggards. " 

' ' The strain of perpetual night work in the effort to acctmiulate literary 
background for every period of English literature is unnecessarily increased. 
The schedule maker does not recognize this fact when term after term a 
different course must be taught. 

"Is not the health question a legitimate part of this questionnaire? A 
large nimiber of English teachers in our large city schools could present 
doctor's bills — or equivalent evidence — of overwork and nerve exhaustion." 

* ' The pushing of the English teacher to the verge of nervous exhaustion 
by many and large classes results in one of two things; either the early 
exhaustion of the conscientious teacher who loves the work, or the spirit of 
indifference bred by the impossibility of doing effective work." 

"Our English department is hampered by an inadequate supply of 
texts already adopted; and an insufficient equipment of all kinds. . . . All 
teachers in the department are overburdened. One has 160 pupils in her 
charge, others 132 and 128, respectively. Although my number is smaller 
(105), supervision of senior essays, direction of the school paper, and general 
supervision of the department more than counterbalance the difference." 

"In our school we have no departments. We have 18 teachers of 
English and 3,000 pupils. There is no scheme for examination of the various 
grades — in fact, nothing is systematized. Teachers are not consulted regard- 
ing selection of text-books — or in other matters of importance. We are using 
thousands of copies of a certain text which has been in use here for over 
25 years." 

"What is the trouble with our English teaching? First, the high school 
English teacher has too many subjects to handle, all grouped conveniently 
under one large title. No other teacher in our schools tries to instruct the 
child in four forty-five-minute periods a week in at least six subjects, grammar, 
literature, composition, rhetoric, oral English, and spelling. Second, like the 
rest of the world, we are riding a theoretical hobby horse. The ideas which 
good teachers have used for years are now being exploited as something new, 
and, under the name of project and social recitation, have crowded out the 
common sense methods of the past, instead of taking their allotted place with 
the other theories. . . . The teacher is poor enough, knows too little, to 
guide these boys and girls into the greatness of life at its best. . . . Third, 
our boys and girls are not receiving the thorough foundation in the elements 
of English. Grammar is difficult. The boys and girls come into our high 
schools today without a knowledge of the elements of the language." 

24 



' ' Make it possible for teachers of English to have no heavier work than 
teachers of other subjects, so that they may have siiificient energy and 
enthusiasm for their work." 

SECTION III 
Of Particular Interest to Teachers 

1. How many periods are devoted to literature, and how many to com- 
position (and grammar) ? How many to a combination of both ? 

The answers to these questions are not easily tabulated. They indicate 
clearly, however, that quite half of the teachers combine the teaching of 
literature with the teaching of composition so closely that statistical measure- 
ment of time devoted to each is impossible. This and their answers to other 
questions show either that they are opportunists who judge from time to time 
whether the assigned reading, or needs of pupils, or a combination of various 
conditions, favor the use of the time for cultivating appreciation, or for culti- 
vating expression. Others no doubt find that real appreciation, and power 
of expression, fundamentally proceed from the same literary cultivation; and 
they teach by a process which is directed simultaneously towards fulfilment 
of both ends. Where distinguishing statistics have been attempted, literature 
in general seems to predominate over composition, though in the first two 
years of high school more attention is given to writing. This arrangement 
accords with the specification of the State Monograph on the Teaching of 
English. In the larger schools, where more than one teacher replied, it 
would seem that the time devoted to literature either slightly exceeds that 
devoted to composition, or is equivalent to it. In none of these schools does 
composition predominate. Perhaps there is a slightly more marked tendency 
in the large schools than in the small to separate the teaching of literature 
from the teaching of composition. One teacher says: "I am in favor of an 
absolute divorce between the studies of composition and literature. ... I 
would recommend that for the first two years in high school grammar and 
composition be taught consecutively and exclusively for two-thirds of the 
school year; and that the remaining one-third be devoted to literature. 
This order could be reversed during the last two years. This separation does 
not mean that literature cannot be used for illustration in the teaching of 
grammar and composition ; it does mean that literature be taught for appre- 
ciation only." 

Yet some of the best teachers prefer to combine them. 

2. How closely, and in what way, do you relate the study of composition 
to the study of literature? 

The replies show that only in rarest instances is the study of composition 
not related, in some way, to the study of literature. Theory and practice 
both favor strongly some relation between the two, but the manner and 
degree of the relation vary through the widest range. One veteran balks at 
"mathematical answers to such questions": "I drive at literature, then 
at composition, then at composition based on literature." This relation 
involves a fundamental problem or risk of which the good teacher is ever 
aware. The spontaneous and natural delight which is a part of true appre- 
ciation of literature may be qualified or extinguished, or wholly prevented 
by too close association with the irksome discipline of composition. Hence 
there should, think some, be "no dissecting of literature to teach technicalities 
of composition", or of grammar. There is, however, a proper element of 

25 



spontaneity in the act of composition as in the act of appreciation, which 
must by all means be kept alive in both. 

Good literature strongly influences the appreciative reader towards more 
vigorous, correct, and orderly expression, whether oral or written, than he 
would otherwise attain. The relation is as subtle as it is actual. One teacher 
allies them "most closely" in cultivating ** close observation and straight 
thinking." Another would never separate them — "constant reading from 
the masters combined with attention to expression of originality of ever}^ 
pupil, gives the best results." Another remarks: "Often a theme may be 
profitably related to both reading and experience. In fact only such themes 
can truly be called the pupil's own compositions." 

Some teachers relate literature to composition ' ' only as the highest type 
of composition" embodying its laws. "Structure of the paragraph and 
sentence, figures of speech, etc., are all taught (1) as a means to understanding 
the literature, (2) as illustrated in the literature, (3) as a problem apart from 
the enjoyment of literature. This has proved more economical of time and 
ejffort than the use of rhetorics.'' Others warn us of the danger of making 
composition "an end in itself", at the cost of genuine study of literature. 

Almost innumerable are the modes, devised by various teachers, of 
combining the study of literature with the study of composition. "We use 
the study of literature in every possible way as a stimulus to our work in 
composition. Work differs every hour of the day, according to the individual 
needs of the pupil and the occasion. For example A Tale of Two Cities is 
related to current thought and debates on Bolshevism." "Some composi- 
tions test accuracy of reading; some, appreciation; many are designed to 
arouse thought about modern questions, and about situations in real life. 
Sometimes the classics are used for paraphrase (to test understanding), 
sometimes for imitation." 

Perhaps the commonest use is the reworking of subject-matter in the 
texts as an exercise in composition. Dramatizations, scenarios, imaginary 
conversations, retelling (especially in earlier years), narrative of events by a 
character in the story in monologue or epistolary form, characterizations, 
portraits, outlines, summaries, paraphrase, essays on historical subjects 
related to novel or poem, studies of properties, costumes, manners, settings, 
imitations (for later years only) — these are by no means all. But most 
teachers do not confine the writing to such subjects, and are cautious about 
the extent and occasion of using them. They no doubt regulate them by 
consideration of the fundamental problem already stated. "Subject-matter 
(of composition)", one remarks, "should rarely be based on the literature 
unless the ideas so taken rise inevitably from the masterpiece studied. I 
sometimes doubt the value of even this relation." 

The practice of imitating literary masterpieces is not so common, though 
it is employed by some skilful teachers, doubtless to good effect. It must be 
judiciously managed. "Occasionally pupils write a modern Spectator paper, 
an additional chapter for Silas Marner, a paragraph in imitation of Irving 
or Macaulay, a ballad, heroic couplets, or a sonnet." Current events are 
discussed in the manner of Addison or Burke or Macaulay. 

Many teachers find the study of literature as convenient a basis for 
oral as for written composition, and much of the practice here described applies 
to both. "Every lesson in literature," writes one, "is a lesson in composition 
by care of expression in all discussions." Alert opportunism, that necessary 
sixth sense of the good teacher, thus utters itself: " Much of the written work 
is a result of oral discussions of topics found in the books we read. Some- 

26 



times the oral work stops abruptly that the same ideas may be naturally 
expressed in writing." 

Doubtless the relation of literature to composition in whatever manner 
is a failure if it is not based upon the genuine observation and thought of 
the pupil. Very pertinently one says : ' ' Literature which does not function 
in the pupil's life is not literature to him." Literature must first stir the 
pupil's feelings, sympathies, ideas, whether pleasurably or by irritation, if 
his study of it is to yield fruit, whether in his mental growth or in expression 
by the spoken or written word. 

3. Of the following devices for teaching literature please mark with 
1, 2, 3, etc., in order of diminishing importance, those which you find most 
efficacious : reading aloud by pupil ; by teacher ; silent reading ; supplemen- 
tary reading; committing to memory; outline and analysis of structure; 
paraphrase; study of single words; free discussion of ideas by pupils and 
teacher; study of artistic elements (metre, cadence, structure, proportion, 
contrast, color, sound, species). Comment. 

Of course the devices here numerated are not all coordinate, and in 
many instances cannot be rated, "This catalogues pretty completely the 
English pedlar's pack." "These are all so necessary that I do not consider 
it a matter of relative importance." "The emphasis necessarily varies with 
the nine different courses I take turns at, with the age of the pupil, and the 
type of literature." "No two works of literature can be taught by the 
same devices." "Good teaching is a combination of all." "Keeping an 
active mind well-stocked with things to teach, and interest in the pupils one 
has to teach, is, to my mind, preferable to experimenting in other people's 
methods." 

Of all this the committee was fully aware. Nevertheless both questions 
served the premeditated end and brought forth very interesting suggestions, 
observations, and preferences. 

Elaborate statistics have been drawn up from the replies to this and 
the next question, but it will be enough to present only the more significant 
ones. "Free discussion" is by far the favorite means, with 93 first choices, 
and 21 second. Reading aloud by the teacher is next, with 28 first choices, 
36 second, and 19 third. Reading aloud by the pupil comes next, but sup- 
plementary voluntary reading is close to it. None of the methods but was 
set above all the rest by at least 8 teachers. The lowest was the special 
study of artistic elements, and of these sound, color, and contrast are the 
preferred objects of study. 

One teacher prefers "free discussion", "because of the confidence the 
pupil gains by such practice, and the personal contact which the teacher 
thus gains with a pupil's ideas." Another finds it the best instrument for 
developing in the pupil the sense of cause and effect, which he considers of 
highest importance, and of cultivating the habit of forming opinions safely. 
Another remarks : "Informal discussion and cross-questioning by the pupils 
(with the teacher in the background) bring better results than formal analysis. 

Varying practice and opinion are illustrated in the following comments : 

"Reading aloud by the teacher and free discussion are necessary for 
freshmen. I consider outline and analysis of structure important in the 
study of the novel and the drama, whereas study of artistic elements, of 
single words, paraphrase and committing to memory are more important in 
the study and appreciation of poetry." "I find in the case of freshmen that 
reading [aloud] by the student usually kills interest, and causes erroneous 

27 



ideas by the poor quality of the reading. " "Of the total time spent in teaching 
literature, I should say three-fourths should be devoted to (1) reading aloud 
by the teacher; (2) study of single words and groups of words; (3) free dis- 
cussion of ideas." "The less minute study of the literature, the better. 
This is especially true of my pupils who have inherited no appreciation of 
literature." "Matters of thought should be emphasized more than those of 
expression. The latter should be treated just enough to bring out the 
former." "My plan is to have the class read aloud the text, and I frequently 
read special passages, with full discussion . . . and only enough work on 
single words to make clear the meaning as a whole." "I am a firm believer 
in plenty of brain-work and in the elimination of gush." "Reading aloud 
by the pupil is very valuable for the individual — often too painful for a class 
to be subjected to it. Paraphrase is essential for some ages. It is rather 
bad to give too much time to it at other ages. The study of single words is 
valuable for intensive work in the last year, but not too much of it." "This 
order [reading aloud by teacher, discussion, silent reading] varies greatly 
with masterpieces. The above order is applicable to most poetry and drama. 
For essays and novels I should put the second before the first; and set 
reading aloud by the pupil not at the bottom as before, but higher in the 
series." "Reading aloud by pupils, in their first year at least, is regarded 
as an evil in some cases necessary, in others to be shunned." "Necessar^^ 
because high school freshmen cannot read intelligently." "Pupils should be 
able to read well before they come to high school." "Although the ordinary 
reading by pupil seems time wasted, dramatic reading where different pupils 
take part seems well worth while." "Pupils who speak and hear a foreign 
language at home, should commit to memory and read aloud." "In study- 
ing poetry I read much to the class; in studying the novel I let the class 
read silently; in studying drama, aloud." 

Several teachers find most efficacious the taking of parts by both pupils 
and teacher for reading aloud ; but one says : "If pupils can read well, I prefer 
to have them do so, but as I have no time for training them individually, I 
find reading Shakespeare myself more helpful especially for foreign children." 

On silent reading one teacher observes: "A poor reader gets little by 
silent reading until by reading aloud he shows his poor conception of words 
and meaning, and thus learns to read carefully. . . . When carelessness is 
overcome, then silent reading stands high. Reading by the teacher may 
prove an inspiration to the student." 

The teaching of structure is looked upon rather guardedly by most 
teachers as tending to dull formalism. One remarks: "Outline and analysis 
of structure should be stressed more in some parts of the course than in 
others. Practice in outlining and study of paragraph structure I consider 
important. Structure of the drama should be very simply treated." Another 
observes that analysis of structure should always be postponed until the 
second reading of a text. 

The practice of paraphrasing is used with caution. One puts it low in 
the list "because it seems better in literature to appreciate and understand 
a well-put phrase than to reconstruct it"; another remarks that at some 
ages it is essential, at others bad. 

The study of single words is another practice which requires delicate 
adjustment. One teacher confines it to the intensive work of the last year. 
Another says that in some cases, as in Macaulay's Johnson and Milton's 
poems, "the study of single words by compiling a glossary is very efficacious." 

To the special study of artistic elements a good teacher may resort often 

28 



and in many various ways, and yet be unable to say much about it. This is 
suggested by the remark: "Study of artistic elements should be largely left 
to individual methods; committing to memory and reading aloud by the 
teacher, are preferred in teaching metres and cadences." This is sensibly 
echoed by another who says that "the pupil unconsciously appreciates the 
regular swing and beauty of a poem, but not after it is reduced to a form 
of composition regulated and dependent on fixed rules of metre." 

4. Of the following devices for teaching composition please mark as in 
the preceding question those which you find most efficacious: assigned 
topics; free choice of topics; cooperative planning of composition by the 
class; correction in red ink; by class; correction on blackboard; reading 
aloud of composition by teacher; by pupil; personal conference; study of 
grammar; word-study. Comment. 

In the teaching of composition personal conference leads all other means, 
with 56 first choices, 20 second, and 20 third. Cooperative planning of a 
theme by the class is second, with 33 first choices, 32 second, and 16 third. 
No device has less than 11 first choices, and none less than 40 of all three 
choices. Others in order are correction on blackboard, correction by the 
class, reading aloud by teacher or pupil, while correction in red ink, word 
study, and grammar come lowest. The practice of assigning topics is only 
slightly preferred to giving the pupil a free choice. 

Most teachers find the same natural difficulty of generalization here as 
under 3. One remarks: "All these devices are good in place; everything 
depends on the personality of teacher and class," and the opinion is echoed. 
Of course the "method of teaching composition must vary with the age of 
the pupil and the type of work." One remarks: "There is danger of losing 
the whole by the study of the parts." 

There is wider variation of opinion about the best practice in teaching 
composition than in the case of literature. One condemns a device most 
cherished by another. It is a case of fitting the tool to the hand, though 
no teacher should become so habitual in the use of one that he cannot or will 
not give a new one a fair trial. 

In the matter of topics for composition, one prescribes free choice as the 
way to plagiarism. Another finds that a combination of free and assigned 
topics works best. The pupil has an idea of what is required, with freedom 
to develo|D his ideas. One suggests that the teacher himself should occa- 
sionally write themes on assigned topics. "No football team," he remarks, 
"has any confidence in a coach who cannot tackle and punt." 

As for the art of composition, one teacher without reservation condemns 
cooperative planning of themes as deadly to all originality. Another finds 
that cooperative planning outdistances all other methods of teaching composi- 
tion. Another finds it an effective method in "developing power to analyze 
a subject, but that it deadens interest in the particular theme." In another 
school "we are having all composition work done in the classroom", but 
details are not given. 

As for the time-honored and oppressive ministration of red ink, the waste 
and exhaustion which it involves have forced teachers to more economical 
practice. "Correction in red ink antagonizes and should antagonize!" 
exclaims a resourceful teacher. At any rate, in red ink alone all agree that 
there is no healing virtue. "I believe in red ink," says one; "preferably the 
re- writing or correcting to be done by each pupil in class under the teacher's 
eye. " " Correction in red ink to be effective, ' ' says another, ' ' must be applied 

29 



to certain specific mistakes after children have been taught the correct forms." 
In one school "the customary procedure is to mark errors in red ink, return 
the themes to the pupils for revision, and have the revised themes handed 
back to the teacher. This plan works better with the older pupils than with 
those of first and second terms." 

Regarding other methods of correction opinions vary, though the tend- 
ency away from the old exhausting processes is strong. One teacher perti- 
nently remarks: "Anticipation of dangers and difficulties helps; as does 
emphasis upon specific virtues to be sought. Even faults of spelling give 
way under vigorous pressure. Any typical error, or grace, especially one 
cited by all the pupils, is effectively and lastingly exemplified on the black- 
board." Another is inclined, after long experience, to believe that "class 
discussion of themes, either as blackboard work, or with the theme in the 
teacher's hand" brings even better results than personal conference. 

Blackboard correction is found useful by nearly everybody. It is especi- 
ally "good with the younger pupils," remarks one, "or in cases where you 
wish to get rid of mechanical errors rapidly." 

One teacher, whose classes are far too large, found correction on the 
blackboard was most efficacious "when I had small classes and sufficient 
blackboard space." This teacher and one other call for a projectoscope. 
No teacher reports on the use of one, but this instrument surely recommends 
itself as a means of emphasis; and if better teachers have found use for it, 
some public-spirited citizen lives in each community enough interested in 
better English to supply this small need. One teacher finds that "typing 
the best and the poorest parts of themes" is useful. A thorough course in 
proof-reading would doubtless be excellent in many cases, and is in a measure 
practicable where the school's work is printed. 

Exchange of work between pupils for mutual correction is practiced not 
infrequently, but, according to some, with doubtful success. "I do not 
find it , " says one, * ' a safe method for frequent use. ' ' Sometimes the exchange 
is effected between lower and higher classes. 

A very practical suggestion is this : ' ' Correct papers for one kind of error 
only. Be sure there is such a correction on each paper. Then pass out 
papers and illustrate error to all on blackboard. Pass about the room to see 
that all write in the correction. Repeat frequently .'' 

A sterner, but probably no less effective course is thus described : * ' Com- 
positions containing certain mistakes I refuse to mark until corrections are 
made. I give a list of these mistakes to the pupils at the beginning of the 
term. They are the bad mistakes that high school pupils frequently make." 
This method of anticipation is recommended by several. 

One teacher comments on the pupil's reading aloud his own work as giving 
him a proper motive for writing — namely an audience to interest and please. 

But, as already indicated, personal conference is the method preferred 
above all, though few can resort to it without sacrifice of their own time and 
infringing upon recreation and thus upon health. Many make the sacrifice. 
Many echo this answer: "Composition, I find, is best taught by private 
conferences with individuals, day by day for a period of several weeks with- 
out interruption of other work." Another teacher remarks that no time is 
afforded for personal conference: "I take time for conferences with the very 
poor students and the very good. I do not find conferences with average 
students of any great profit." 

30 



5. How is the work in oral composition related to the other work 
in English? 

Expressed opinion, confined to teachers in the larger schools, agrees that 
oral composition may most profitably precede written, and stands in close 
reinforcing relation to it. " If a pupil can learn to think quickly and clearly, 
and use good sentences in oral work, he will write well." This may seem 
obvious, but if it points the way to more direct, economical, and effective 
training in writing, let us ponder it. "Oral recitation, recitation on special 
topics, class development of outlines, with class criticism — all prepare classes 
to know what to write about, and how to wTite it." This fairly describes the 
process followed by others. See III, 2, page 25. 

Some remark particularly on the criticism by class and teacher of the 
oral work before undertaking the written. "In all English work the pupils 
criticise each other for mistakes in grammar, sentence-structure, and manner 
of presentation. They aim to have their criticisms rather constructive than 
destructive." In one school the class insists upon correct posture and 
enunciation; another deals particularly with content, organization, pro- 
nunciation, and even punctuation, in oral composition. Again, "Students 
are expected to give all discussions, questions, and answers, in satisfactory- 
English. In the two or three minute talks by the students, rules for unity, 
coherence, and proportion are followed." Another requires an informal note 
of the first sentence, main topic, and concluding sentence, which is handed 
in before speaking. 

But oral composition may and should furnish a discipline in itself. 
Morristown gives a four-months' course in public speaking. One teacher 
finds debating after all the best form of oral work. 

Various are the subjects and occasions of oral composition — current 
topics and events, assigned or outside reading, topics on which material may 
be assembled at the public library, unusual events or issues in the school, 
athletics, scientific experiments or processes, how to make or do something, 
biography of authors. One teacher used oral composition "as a device for 
reviewing text materials according to the Colgate plan of extemporaneous 
speaking." Another mentions some "modernized dialogues" by the Junior 
Class, based on Julius Ccesar. Another describes "special programs, some- 
times given in connection with the study of an author — recitations, readings, 
drama tizings, debates." One properly insists that the subjects should be 
within reach of the pupil's interest and comprehension. 

Clearly the importance of oral English, not only in composition but in 
every phase of the study, is as yet apparent only to a few teachers. The 
best prose and verse have been fashioned through the ear, not by the eye or 
the thiunb rule. English style is today decadent because it is not heard, 
and not judged orally. Only where teachers of English become aware of 
this, and themselves grow sensitive to intonation, cadence, rhythm, and all 
that good speech, not artificial or affected speech, implies, can they hope to 
make genuine and permanent progress in training others to use and recognize 
good English, and to appreciate the language in its higher forms. 

6. Please add a note of any other devices that you have adopted, such 
as the "socialized recitation", the "project method", etc. 

Though only two-thirds replied, no question brought forth more inter- 
esting or varied replies than this. One teacher confesses a natural suspicion 
of nostrums and devices. " Is there not danger of becoming too much wedded 
to a 'method'? If we have a 'method' at all, it is the human method of 

31 



sympathetically understanding each pupil's real life, and of training him 
first of all, to 'know himself, and secondly, to 'express himself.' For 
authorities I believe we have Socrates and Froebel." Thoughtful teachers 
will applaud this sentiment. Tools without an artist are idle. But granted 
the artist, he must have his tools; and some tools fit one hand, some another. 
There are artists and artists, hands and hands. Says one: "Variety is 
most desirable. Pupils tire of the same thing day after day. Different ways 
of 'going at' things appeal to different pupils." 

The "socialized" recitation, or some tendency to socialization, is the 
fashion that heads all others. But while some are enthusiastic, some are 
distinctly cautious. "I'm rather conservative in my belief in a central con- 
trol in the classroom . . . .Side lights and side dashes help so long as they 
are merely such, and do not confuse or degrade the general plan." 

Various forms of "socialization" are introduced. In one case the class 
is organized as a Literary Club, with president and secretary, while the 
teacher retires to a position as modest as safety permits. Similar plans are 
followed by others, especially for the work in oral composition. Sometimes 
thc}^ are elaborate. "In Junior work, besides a President and Secretary, 
there is a librarian, a manager of debates, and a manager of dramatics. 
Independently of the class they work up debates and scenes from books." 
Again "I sometimes divide classes into groups of five. Each group has a 
chairman who must call a meeting, propose work, and after a free discussion 
decide upon something to be done by this group on a given day, known as 
Literary Day'." A "class critic", one finds, works well in upper grades. 
In one case, "after attending a trial, the class tried Banquo as an accomplice 
of Macbeth." In some schools the club meeting is set for each Friday. The 
open forum is recommended in some circumstances. "Following oral compo- 
sition, I have used successfully the "open forum" for purposes of stimulating 
orderly discussion on the part of the class, and full, accurate statements on 
the part of the speaker." 

But successful as this plan of socialized teaching has proved, it must, 
in the opinion of many, be used with judgment and caution. " ' The socialized 
recitation' keeps the class alert and disposes of many errors, but must be 
censored or time is wasted with quibbling." One who likes it for oral compo- 
sition and occasional discussion of outside reading, warns against excessive 
use of it. Various dangers are mentioned — that it lacks definition, causes 
carelesssness and makes it too easy for some pupils, is difficult in large classes, 
and may by overuse result in vagueness of accomplishment. 

Comments on the project method are these: "I like the 'project' method 
where time allows and the project is not too big." "We emphasized the 
' project ' method particularly in four-minute speeches during the war drives — 
and do so frequently in composition planning"; in another school each 
member of the class took part in the Junior Four-Minute Men contest; in 
another the plans for the observance of American Speech Week were put 
into the hands of a committee elected b}^ the classes. 

Dramatization is a favorite device — not merely the acting of Shakes- 
peare and other plays, but the actual making and presenting of plays and 
scenes from novels and short stories. 

Publication offers peculiar advantages through various processes, such as 
proof-reading, which lead to exactness and self-criticism. " Our High School, " 
writes one, "publishes the weekly town paper. Much of this material is 
supervised by the English Department. All of it, except the editorials, the 
more important news articles, etc., is corrected by the more efficient pupils 

32 



in the vipper classes" (Glassboro). In several cases, especially in schools of 
moderate size, the material for the school paper is selected from the best 
school work. In one school the second-year pupils published a little magazine 
which "inspired some good expository writing." Other talents are sometimes 
turned to account to reinforce the interest in writing. "Once a month," 
reports one teacher, " a small pamphlet is produced by each pupil, illustrated 
and arranged during the month." And another: "One day every quarter 
pupils submit any original contributions to vote for the school paper." And 
another: "Two boys are working on illustrations for a booklet of the Rime 
of the Ancient Mariner. This is because they have a talent for drawing, and 
I found one of them drawing caricatures of the Vision of Sir Launfal in class." 
In one school the pupils actually collaborated in a book which was subse- 
quently copyrighted and published. Musical talent could, of course, be 
similarly employed in reviving the old settings of famous lyrics, or in com- 
posing new ones. Various possibilities will suggest themselves. One teacher 
enumerates a number, unfortunately without SLny detail of her practice in 
using them: "Victrola, fine editions, singing, voluntary memorizing contests, 
illustrated notebooks, class-books." 

A suggestion here may be inserted, useful perhaps to some teachers of 
letter-writing: "I secure motivation for letter-writing by having letters 
actually sent." 

From one of the smaller high schools, an underpaid teacher, who has 
to divide her time between Physical Training and English, sends this useful 
and detailed account of her procedures: "Last year I inaugurated a Public 
Speaking Class. The History teacher and I conduct this period. Here they 
are taught parliamentary procedure. They have formal and informal dis- 
cussions and debates, to which people of the town or any strangers are invited. 
Such subjects as 'The Daylight-Saving Bill', 'Capital and Labor', 'The Atti- 
tude of Congress toward the Treaty,' etc., have been discussed this year. 
For my exposition work, I generally find out what they are doing in Manual 
Training. They write an exposition of that and attach it to the actual model. 
. . . The commercial course is correlated with their English through 
their Public Speaking Class. The person acting as Secretary must be from 
the commercial course. The minutes must be written in shorthand and 
typed in good English. All papers read at the Discussion Meetings must be 
typewritten. I correlate their mathematics and science by making the 
students look up biographies of mathematicians and scientists. Then they 
write a character sketch or a biographical sketch. They likewise give a 
four-minute oration twice a week in assembly on such topics. I make the 
children collect unoccupied and deserted nests, lookup the history of the birds 
and their habits and write about them or describe them. I make them 
gather leaves and flowers and describe their differences. We make visits 
to the woods, to fields, and likewise to the mill, and write or tell what we 
have seen. My Juniors and Seniors visit the court house and then apply 
their knowledge of argumentation. We cut out and mount famous paint- 
ings and gather illustrations for our classics. We study the application of 
English classics in advertising. We likewise dramatize our classics in the 
open air." 

7 . What success have you had with the new ' ' measurements ' ' and ' ' tests 
of proficiency in English? 

To this question 95 of the returned questionnaires made no reply. This 
shows that schemes of measurement have as yet made little headway. 3 say 

: 33 



the}^ have no time to use them. "Too busy with teaching to do any measur- 
ing", says one teacher in a private school. 17 make a little use of them. 16 
express approval, and 4 others qualified approval. 8 disapprove of them. 
Sa^^s one: "We have had the tests, but I cannot see that they gave us any 
information we did not have before"; and another, in the same school; 
"They were tried last year in our school, and were an interruption and a 
nuisance." 

Others find them useful : * ' They have raised the standard of English in 
the minds of the pupils"; "They helped to make students realize their own 
deficiencies. ,1 believe this is the beginning of wisdom." "By seeing on 
the board the average composition for their grade, pupils have been inter- 
ested in 'measuring' their own work." These quotations are from high 
schools of average size or a little more. One of the most progressive schools 
has used Trabue tests "for selection and segregation of selected group chosen 
for general excellence," and thus endeavors to overcome one of the most 
serious defects in our popular education. 

A variety of opinion is reflected in the replies from which it is impossible 
as 3^et to draw a notable conclusion. There is some reason to think that the 
tests rouse competitive interest among pupils, and that they like them. Some 
schools and some pupils find in them an incentive to improvement. They 
have helped some less experienced teachers to measure their work and define 
their standards. They "disclose the inefficiency of work in the grades." 
But according to others they attempt to measure the unmeasurable, and have 
statistical, but not educational value. Especially unsatisfactory are the 
tests in composition. They are "not developed enough," or "too compli- 
cated for large classes", or "doubtful", or "results are not definite or con- 
clusive." In one large school "we are about to devise a scale of our own 
through cooperative work in the department." 

8. Have you ever had any training of the voice, formal or informal? 

107 teachers of 138 who answered this question have had training of the 
voice ; 3 1 have not. 

This question was put in view of two considerations : first, the enormous 
importance of the voice in the matter of one's whole physical condition; 
secondly, the preeminence of the voice as an instrument in the interpretation 
and demonstration of the qualities of literature. 

(1) All teachers have noticed that when the voice is tired, body and 
mind are tired throughout. Such weariness comes not from use, but misuse, 
of the voice, which is the natural and vicious habit of many teachers and 
speakers in public. A little training by a good teacher, whatever it costs, 
is an economy and a protection (see Floyd S. Muckey, The Natural Method 
of Voice Production, English Journal 4, 625-38), and is very likely to convert 
present drudgery and failure jnto genuine pleasure and success. 

(2) All great literature is primarily oral, and literally demands a hear- 
ing. This can come about only through a pleasing and well-managed voice; 
for, however favorable to good teaching all other conditions may be, a voice 
unpleasant in any way may defeat them all. The skilful voice on the other 
hand may accomplish in a moment what years of explanation, discussion, 
analysis, and all the rest, never will. 

9. What means can you recommend of strengthening and humanizing 
the relations between teacher and pupil ? 

Replies variously dwelt upon either (A) activities and practices con- 
ducive to better relations; or (B) conditions or provisions under which the 

34 



teaching goes on; or (C) necessary qualifications of the teacher. Roughly, 
51 stress A; 19 insist upon B; 69 assert the importance of C. Obviously 
all three are important, though A is indispen.sable to the others. The teacher 
is all. 

A. All forms of activities are mentioned, within school and without. 
Definitely suggested are athletics, dramatics, the socialized recitations, club 
organization of the class under student control, cooperation in writing in the 
school paper, cooperation with school-and-home organization, school dances 
and social events, excursions with the class to places associated with the 
work. Through such activities opportunities both for official relations 
which lead to personal acquaintance, and for informal relation, are always 
available to the tactful teacher. 

We cite also a few suggestions. Two teachers speak of autobiographical 
subjects for composition tactfully chosen. One of these maintains that the 
cultivation of personal relationship with the pupil must go on "through the 
work itself, not in spite of it." Says another: "Lead, instead of driving, when 
you can. Where compositions are read and discussed, sit with the class"; 
and another: "I try to make my pupils feel that their opinions are worth 
while. Seldom do I force mine upon them"; and another: "Pupils respect 
the confidence placed in them. I give them the chance to be useful and 
helpful." Another observes that pupils are at a shy age and the teacher 
must make the advances. Another finds opportunity by going to the refer- 
ence-room now and then with individuals in their quest for special information. 
One Junior high school actually sets apart a half hour for more intimate 
personal conference. 

B. Some conditions favorable to intimacies are external, like the 
appointed conference hour just mentioned, and a private conference-room 
where surroundings and auspices are informal and unofficial. As one 
remarks: "Conference should not be limited to the poor pupils." Others 
designate overwork, low pay, and the consequent weakened morale as the 
real obstacles to personal intimacies with pupils. A teacher in a private 
school calls for "a living wage that will increase the boys' respect for the 
man, and give live men sufficient incentive to stay in the profession." One 
says pointedly, "Substitute freshness for fatigue of the teacher." And 
another: "The high pressure tmder which we work, the necessity of giving 
oneself to mechanical detail in every spare moment, deprives one of the 
chance to make friends that leisure alone could make possible." No better 
summary of the case, is offered either as a matter of conditions or quality 
of the teacher than the remark: ''If a teacher is not overworked and tmder- 
paid, and really cares for her work and her pupils, there will he no need of 
'humanizing'.'' 

C. The first req-uisite for close relation with the pupil, namely the qualities 
of the teacher, are variously described, though with essential agreement. 
The notes here quoted indicate the range. "Shake off your teacher's shell." 
"No means will succeed without natural sympathy and sincere interest 
together with some degree of personal magnetism." "A courteous and sym- 
pathetic manner, and a genuine and evident interest in the pupil's home, 
present difficulties, and hopes for the future will do much to vitalize these 
relations." "Build on the intelligence the pupil has, not on what he ought 
to have. " " Abhor cynicism. ' ' One veteran teacher advises : "Be human ' ' 
and adds, as a means thereto, "the devout study of the New Testament." 

35 



10. What form of recreation or "setting up" for mind and spirits seem to 
you best for a teacher of EngUsh ? 

24 made no answer. The repHes are interesting enough to justify the 
question by their variety alone ; and we hope that teachers may find in them 
suggestions for experiment outside of habitual diversions that sometimes 
grow perfunctory. 

The largest number (53) mention the theatre or music (not movies, says 
one). But 52 read for recreation. One recommends reading "night and 
day, and University study"; but another: "Don't read to excess outside 
of school. Simplicity is best." One prescribes "a good play by good actors, 
a logical sermon, reading the Atlantic"; another, "concentrated study of 
Latin or literature not taught at school"; another resorts to "good modern 
literature"; indeed, ten teachers in all recommend outside study; and one 
remarks that the ^recreation of the teacher of English should be ''broadening 
of the work, not an escape from it." 

Many depend upon physical exercise; 27 mention athletics in general; 
30 merely "exercise" and 13 still more vaguely say "out of doors"; 30 speak 
of walking; and other physical recreations recommended are rowing, canoe- 
ing, golf, gardening, "if you like it", and even riding horseback. One sug- 
gests "household activities, if one has a home"; another "week-end trips 
if you can afford them" ; 7 are for the automobile; 4 for dancing; 4 for travel. 

Others renew themselves with the practice of an art — writing, painting, 
drawing, or music; and two resort to social welfare work. 

Social intercourse and conversation are recommended in 29 replies. 
"A teacher of English," one obsei*ves, "should not be a recluse"; another is 
refreshed by "a good talk", and another finds the most profitable recreation 
in "association with those in other occupations." Everyone will agree 
with the teacher who insists that "pleasant living conditions" are indis- 
pensable to freshness of mind and spirit. 

Two very significant comments on the whole matter remain: "Salary 
does not admit of much advanced study and recreation after various club 
dues have been 'extracted', and contributions to worthy 'drives' and chari- 
ties have been made." "My mind and spirit need more than anything else 
at the present time a cessation from financial worry due to inadequate 
salary." 

1 1 . Do you consider a state association of teachers of English desirable ? 
The expressed desire is overwhelmingly for a state association. 120 

voted "yes", eight of them emphaticall}^ 6 voted "no", and 7 express 
themselves as uncertain. 

12. What should be the aims of this Association? 

This question elicited a wide variety of suggestions, most of them gen- 
eral. The large majority agree that the Association should work not for 
its own benefit or the selfish benefit of teachers, but for the better teaching 
of English. They are about evenly divided between those who would accom- 
plish this by improving conditions, and those who would do it by raising 
the quality of teachers and of teaching. Probably all would agree that both 
are necessary. 

Among other aims suggested for the Association are these: "To raise 
teaching from a trade to a profession." "To improve conditions, financial 
and spiritual." "To introduce uniformity." "To furnish monthly bulle- 
tins, telling teachers the worst faults, the minimimi of essentials to stress, 

36 



and methods that have been tested." "To gather the few who care into 
professional companionship; not to strain for the indifferent multitude." 
"To help us accomplish one-half of the things expected of us by others and 
by ourselves." 

13. What course would you suggest for the Association to follow in 
working for such a reform ? 

The course most often suggested for the Association is publicity, espe- 
cially publicity in the form of petitions and resolutions to be presented to the 
legislature, boards, and authorities, for the amelioration of present conditions 
in the teaching of English. " Unintermittent publicity" is called for. 
"Publicity is needed. The schools are criticized for not producing graduates 
who can talk and write well. The conditions under which the teacher works 
are not known." " Inform the people that they are not getting their nioney's 
worth under present conditions. Drive at authorities to convince them 
that they should accept expert advice", and "to educate principals, superin- 
tendents, and school boards to a realization that teachers of English are 
overworked." It is the Association's duty, says another, " To lay before the 
State Department of Education a few salient questions for solution." 
"Teachers should at least be consulted as authorities. Decisions should be 
made by those who meet the problems." 

Here, as in other questions, the guiding demand is for opportunity to 
teach individuals as individuals. "I believe that the Association should 
cooperate with the state authorities in an effort to have more time for super- 
vised study of English, and fewer pupils under the care of one teacher." 

The Association is advised ''to urge hoards of education to reduce section 
numbers to a maximum of 25, and give no teacher 0} English more than a hundred 
students, allowing about one-third of her time for conference periods.'' 

"If for every recitation period assigned the teacher in English there 
should be also a non-recitation period for the correction of composition work 
and personal conferences, and this scheme were obligatory throughout the 
state, I believe the teaching of English could be improved far more than 
under present conditions." "Publicity in the daily press" is urged concern- 
ing the value of the study of English and the poor results at present because 
of crowded conditions." 

The Association is urged to "join heartily in the publicity campaign for 
the Betterment of Public School Education, which has been recently launched 
in New Jersey." 

One wisely suggests "a campaign for the education of teachers and school 
boards as to the conditions essential to the successful teaching of our mother 
tongue, making available the data collected by our Association and the 
N. E. A., and also the conclusions drawn by both organizations. The cam- 
paign should be conducted largely through the local teachers." 

"We are also reminded that conferences of teachers in a locality are 
excellent; an exchange of teachers for a year from various high schools, 
would be very beneficial to teachers and to schools. Very informal meetings 
are helpful." 

The Association is more than once advised to work for a better standard 
of admission to the high school : "A standard age for entrance to high school — 
thirteen, at least" is demanded. "Advocate the Junior High School, or at 
least departmental work in English, in the seventh and eighth grades." 
"A general comprehensive test for entrance to high school, unifoiTn through- 
out the state." "Begin by simplifying the primary curriculum and the 

37 



grammar curriculiim. Take out the frills." "Require less literature in the 
high school (though I hate to sa}^ it) . We have too large a foreign element to 
make our course possible." 

One teacher advocates work in the interest of school libraries, and 
recommends a small library in each grade, and intelligently supervised read- 
ing by each pupil. Another urges "propaganda against worn-out fallacies 
concerning usage. I know a teacher who insists that pupils say ' ill ' instead 
of 'sick', pronounces 'I don't think' incorrect, yet habitualty says 'in back 
of." 



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